The Latest on Koreas: S. Korean leader visits border base

The saber rattling in the Korean Peninsula escalated Friday as the North threatened military action if South Korea does not stop blaring propaganda from speakers across the border by Saturday.

On Thursday, the North reportedly fired shells in the direction of one of South Korea’s propaganda loudspeaker units. The decision was made hours after South Korea launched dozens of 155-millimeter artillery rounds across the border that divides the two nations.

South Korean Vice Defence Minister Baek Seung-joo said it was likely the North would fire at some of the 11 sites where the loudspeakers are set up on the South’s side of the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating the countries.

South Korea’s National Security Council met with President Park Geun-hye about North Korea artillery shelling in border area.

On Friday, about 70,000 soccer fans showed up at Rungrado May Day Stadium in Pyongyang to watch the South Korean team play a Chinese squad.

Kim ordered troops to be fully armed and prepared for combat, which increased tensions along the demilitarized zone.

It comes as leader Kim Jong-Un was pictured wearing sunglasses and smiling at Pyongyang worldwide Airport as he met the North Korean women’s football team after they won the EAFF East Asian Cup.

Only South Koreans with direct business interests in Kaesong – which lies 10 kilometers inside North Korea – would be allowed to travel there, a ministry spokesman said.

– June 29, 2002: The North Korean navy sinks a South Korean patrol boat in a clash along the contested western sea border. Since the end of the Korean War in 1953, which ended in a truce and never a formal peace treaty, threats and small amounts of violence have been a common occurrence.

The two countries previous exchanged fire last October, as well as in 2010.

North Korea is known for saber-rattling with its southern neighbor – with which it has technically been at war since 1950 – and Kim has given similar orders in recent years, though no battles took place. In 2013, the North declared it would enter into a “state of war” with the South, though both South Korea and the UN dismissed the threats as empty rhetoric.

“Psychological warfare against [North Korea] is, in essence, an open act of war against it”, North Korea’s state-run news agency announced on Friday. (The mines detonated, maiming two South Korean soldiers). “South Korean gangsters, insane to find provocation against us, again fabricated the incident of North Korea firing towards the South on the afternoon of August 20″, she said. South Korean officials say a North Korean officer was killed and three other sailors wounded, while the South suffered no casualties.

The CMC meeting in Pyongyang insisted that the situation would only de-escalate if South Korea turned off the propaganda loudspeakers. “What they want is a stable regime, and all these actions are taken because they think the South is disturbing that”.